Do apps have access to the photos and videos stored on my phone?

I was browsing the Windows Store to see what apps to download and I've noticed that some apps say that they require access to my photo and video library which made me wonder: does this mean that these apps have access to my photos and videos that I've taken, like they can see my photos??

Originally Posted by Kerry Andrews

I was browsing the Windows Store to see what apps to download and I've noticed that some apps say that they require access to my photo and video library which made me wonder: does this mean that these apps have access to my photos and videos that I've taken, like they can see my photos??

Normally its so you can access the photos via the app not that the app can download the images

Originally Posted by stickyshocker

Normally its so you can access the photos via the app not that the app can download the images

I mean the apps that you wouldn't think would need access to your photo library such as a reading app or a games app. I've also seen some apps that require access to my contact numbers and it's not like it's a Whatsapp app which I can see the point in why they would need access to those data but for something like a games app or a dictionary/translator app to require access to those information, it makes me wonder why they need it and what do they do with it etc.

Can you give some examples? As quite a lot of the devs come on here and may pick up the question if they know its their app